Menu

The playground of R.W. Ridley and C. Hoyt Caldwell

More on rewrites

Pearl of Justice update

The hardest part about rewrites is getting started on rewrites. I swear once I rework an existing chapter, I find myself getting really excited. I forget how well I know these characters, and it is truly a blast expanding them and giving them more depth. When you think about the rewriting process, all you can picture is all the stuff that worked. It worked so well you can’t imagine making it better, but once you start tinkering, a light bulb goes off. Sometimes you even kick yourself for not seeing it before.

Of the original 96 chapters, four have been completely re-envisioned. Two of those have made Dani the focal point where she previously didn’t even appear, and one has given a little more insight into a minor character whose story will carry over into the next book and give him a little more complexity. The first chapter is no longer the first chapter. There is a new chapter one with Dani at the helm. I’m not done by a long shot, but I’m feeling energized, and anxious to get this to the publisher.

I am working on Book Seven of The Oz Chronicles. I promise. I had planned on calling it The Actuals, and I had even written a few chapters, but recently I sat on the train to New York for two hours, and a wild, practically impossible idea came to me, so, of course, I want […]